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Qualcomm is seeding market for the smartwatch

Qualcomm is indeed seeding the market for wearable computers worn on the wrist, and its smartwatch is far more advanced, yet also far more expensive, than early competing products from Sony and others.

Qualcomm is seeding market for the smartwatch

SAN FRANCISCO — Qualcomm is indeed seeding the market for wearable computers strapped on the wrist, and its smartwatch is far more advanced — yet also far more expensive — than early competing products from Sony and others.

The San Diego-based supplier of wireless chip technology is trying to jump-start the market for smartwatches that's also reportedly being targeted by Apple and Google, as well as big handset makers, as we reported in our last column here.

Scheduled to ship in the fourth quarter, the product will be priced at $300 to $350, compared with an average of $125 for Sony's SmartWatch and $150 for the Pebble, made by a start-up of the same name. Samsung Galaxy Gear was unveiled Wednesday.

One of the most innovative things about the product — which Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs unveiled at the company's developer conference Wednesday in San Diego — is its visual display technology.

With a screen that uses little power yet can render full-motion video, Qualcomm's display screen is a breakthrough because it uses reflected light and so never needs to be turned on, according to the Qualcomm executive whose unit built it.

John Shinal, technology columnist for USA TODAY.(Photo: USA TODAY)

The technology, called Mirasol, also makes the watch easier to see when its user goes outdoors.

"It works in ambient light and gets better in sunlight," says Rob Chandhok, president of interactive platforms at Qualcomm.

The technology is similar to the way that butterflies reflect bright color patterns using sunlight.

Qualcomm has no intention of becoming a smartwatch maker over the long term, and is making only "tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands" of its Toq (pronounced "talk") devices, Chandhok says.

"We're not becoming a consumer-technology company. We're into providing technology for our (hardware) partners to bring to market," Chandhok says, referring to Samsung and other big device makers.

One thing Qualcomm isn't trying to do is torpedo the market for smartphones because it earns most of its revenue by licensing its wireless chip technology to makers of the devices.

Instead, the Toq smartwatch is designed to complement a handset, and talk to it using an open-source version of Bluetooth wireless technology called Alljoyn, Chandhok told me.

Qualcomm designed the product to be compatible with Android devices — yet not iPhones or iPads — in a glaring example of how Apple misses out on market opportunities by making its software harder to integrate with than Android, which is an open-source platform.

Android apps built for Toq will be able to send info back and forth between the smartwatch and an Android handset.

The first application programming interfaces that Qualcomm will release to smartwatch developers will make it easy for them to add features to the phone — but not write apps for it.

"The user experience is so new, we're not convinced that consumers will want to download apps directly to their watch," Chandhok says.

Rather, an alternative user experience might emerge, in which users set their smartphones to determine which apps it will share with their smartwatch.

The Toq can interact with and control everything from a coffee machine to an air conditioner, allowing a consumer to set his environment without having to pick up a phone.

Chandhok says that one of his favorite things about the device — which his team spent a year developing — is that it allows him to check his calendar without having to switch from a call or browsing session.

"You just glance down, and the display is always on," he says.

The Qualcomm smartwatch also features an interface that allows the user to switch screens with the push of a button.

"Your watchface can contain information or just be a style," says Chandhok.

The battery life of the device is "three-to-five days," he says. "Our target is five days."

To recharge it, Qualcomm also unveiled a charging tray that can power up small devices easily.

The tray can be used to charge a wide range of consumer devices, and is based on a lower-power version of a standard technology pushed by the WiPower Alliance, of which Qualcomm is a part.

It has no keyboard, and with its high price, the Toq could never hope to reach a mass market even if Qualcomm wanted it to.

Yet it could help speed the proliferation of the devices by supplying hardware makers with technologies that could prove popular with consumers.